Chapter 169

169 Chapter 169 : A new hybrid?

The door was kicked open and Kazan walked into the tower where Estel and her son were being held. He had a frustrated look on his face and Estel knew immediately that this visit would not be a pleasant one.

“What is it this time?!” The man growled.

Estel cradled Damien closer to her chest and looked up at the agitated man. “I need healing herbs for him, you know this.”

Kazan scoffed and marched to where Estel was sitting, he roughly pulled back the cloth covering the baby she was holding and glared at it, “you better make sure your son heals up quickly princess, other wise your life of comfort here is over, do you understand me?”

“Aiden is a new breed,” Estel responded, she felt disgusted by merely being in the presence of these men but she had to keep her emotions at bay for now.

“Both elves and nosferatu grow ridiculously fast over a short period of time!” Kazan rambled, “so what the hell is wrong with this one?!”

The elven princess took a deep breath and covered her child, “if I knew I wouldn’t need the herbs.”

“This child has been like this for ages! The master’s patience is running thin and when it runs out,” Kazan tilted Estel’s chin to face him and she had to resist the urge to spit in his face. “Once the master’s patience runs out, you die princess.” He roughly pushed her head to the side and grabbed the peice of paper that had the herbs Estel needed for her ‘medicinal potion’.

As he turned to leave, Estel stood up to follow him but Kazan stopped her. “You stay here, I’ll get these for you.”

.....

“Why? What if you get the wrong ones, I need to-”

“You waltzing around in the woods is compromising our position! Now stay here!” Kazan rushed out the door and slammed it shut.

After she heard him lock it and heard his footsteps move further and further away, she snapped her fingers and an invisible wall surrounded the room. She learnt this trick from an old book she had found in the library when she was young, ‘a wall of invisibility’. Back then, she had only used it to sneak out and go play, and once she had used it to cover her and Aiden from prying eyes while they were making love in a river. Never did she think she would use it for the purpose of safety.

She lay the baby on the bed, and after wiped her finger over his tiny forehead after which little Damien grew in size.

“Why didn’t the bad man let us go outside mama?” The boy mumbled with a pouting face.

Estel was well aware that those few moments they went outside to collect the herbs for the potion were some of Damien’s favorite. Growing up only surrounded by walls, the little boy found happiness in only thirty minutes of hearing the chirping of birds and the rustling of trees blown by the wind.

Estel cupped her son’s cheek in hers and smiled comfortingly at him, “I’m sorry darling but we can’t go outside today.” She pulled him in for a hug and gently stroked his ginger locs, “I know it seems like a bad thing now , but this only tells me that your father is very close to finding us.”

The little boy craned his neck and looked up at his mother with teary eyes, “papa is coming?”

The blonde princess bent down and kissed Damien’s forehead, “he is, we just have to wait a bit longer.”

“When he’s here can I play outside then?”

Estel pursed her lips, she swore to herself that she would make sure every last one of these humans payed for committing her son to such a pitiful life. “Of course darling, when he comes for us you can play as much as you want.”

*

“I think I’m full,” Elric muttered and rose from his seat, “I’ll be retiring to bed early tonight. Have a good night.”

“Are you also in support of keeping that girl alive Elric?!” Bradley called out to his son, “You’re the king here, you should be the logical one.”

The silver haired king turned to his father and looked at him with pity. This wasn’t logic speaking, it was the pain and rage of losing someone you love, all his father was doing was trying to find an outlet for all that frustration.

“Father with all due respect,” Elric spoke, “Clovis is right, it was just a tragic accident. I will see to it that Julia is punished but she most definitely will not be sentenced to death.”

“You’re all useless, all of you,” Bradley Aldos responded, “just leave, clearly non of you loved your mother the way that i did.”

“Good night father,” Elric spoke as he walked away, “I hope you move past this pain and hate soon. It will eat you alive, me of all people should know.”

When Elric left the dining room, Jeffrey poured himself more wine, “well that was quite the show,” he mumbled.

Bradley turned to him and sighed, “just leave Jeffrey.”

“Yes sir,” the dark haired prince responded and immediately exited the room with the jar of wine and his cup in hand .

*

Aiden threw his eyes towards an open window on the other end of the hallway across from the room he was given. He had the nagging feeling that he was constantly being watched. He walked to the window, opened it and peered out but saw no one.

“Who are you?..” he muttered into the the darkness of the night.

“Speaking to yourself will have people thinking you’ve gone crazier than you already are,” a voice called behind him.

Aiden turned around and saw Finwe, the one that resembled his Estel, standing behind him. Seeing him only made Aiden more determined to find her.

“Don’t you feel that?” Aiden asked the blonde elf.

“The cold?” Finwe replied, “yes, winter is upon us, we should be expecting what your kind refer to as snow very soon.”

“What do you mean by ‘your kind’?” Aiden questioned the elf with an arched brow.

“We elves don’t experience winter in Ervelon,” Finwe responded with a smug smile.

“Huh, that actually makes a lot of- wait no, thats not the topic at hand right now.” Aiden shock his head and closed the window. “I keep sensing a presence lingering around us.”

“Are you sure it’s not just your paranoia?”

“No, I’m certain there’s someone watching us,” Aiden responded, “we need to be careful of what we say.”

“Hmm, that sounds like a genuine concern,” Finwe responded. “But why would someone be watching us, and who? Is there someone after you?”

Aiden froze for a brief second before shaking his head. He had a feeling it was the mages who were trailing him, he must have been getting close to finding Estel and now they were trying to ensure they knew his every move. But he couldn’t tell his comrades that, especially not now. He didn’t have the luxury of giving these men any reason to doubt his intentions.

“Is there something you’re keeping from us Aiden?” Finwe pestered the man. “You know that Gareth won’t take kindly to you compromising Melissa’s safety, especially in the state she is in.”

“I wouldn’t put my own blood in danger,” Aiden responded and shoved past Finwe, “watch what you say to me.”

Outside the window Aiden had just peeked out of, the little black raven flattered its wings and fled to the nearby thicket of trees behind the palace. When he was sure he was covered, Renly transformed back into his human form and sighed.

“Damn it!” He mumbled as he made his way to sit on a nearby rock. This was the second time Aiden had almost spotted him, curse that nosferatu’s keen instincts.

Renly pulled out a canteen and some wrapped up bread that he had hidden behind a shrub and started eating while deep in thought. He had only heard a bit of what the men were discussing, but he had heard something about the elven prince fathering a child with a nosferatu woman, if that was true, the master would be very interested in knowing this.

The boy, Aiden’s son, was taking much too long to develop, and the master was running out of time, so if they got their hands on a second hybrid they may have a chance. Maybe Damien was just a defective specimen, and maybe this other one would turn out more viable.

After finishing his bread, Renly leaned back on the rock, he was extremely exhausted from flying around following Aiden and his friends. Using these powers was not easy because he had only recently been gifted with them by the master. The man was really great, by extracting blood from a nosferatu and using his crazy magic called science, he was able to make Renly fly, flying had always been his dream and the master made it possible. He would be loyal to this man till the end of his days, and to do that he had to be sure what he heard about another hybrid on the way was accurate.